Refrigerating apparatus



Aug. '27, 1946. c. F. PETKWITZ REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Fie'd Oc't. '7, 1944 INVENTOR.

m: 4 rra RN' n',

Patented Aug. 27, 1946 Carl F. Petkwit'a'yton, Ohio, assignor to Geny eral Motors Corporation, Dayton, Ohio, a corporaton of Del-aware Anplcation October 7, 1944, Serial No. 551567 2` Claims. 11 e This invention relates to refrigerator cabinets and particularly to' a door construction for such cabinets.

While I am aware of the fact that many different seals. and arrangements for securing the seal to'a dooroi a refrigerator cabinet for sea]- ing engagement with the cab'net are in existi ance, these known structures are not entirely satisfactory. Some of these door structures are complicated and: expensive to manufacture and the arrangements for' looking or securing a seal thereto have various disadvantages. For example, refrigerator' cabinet doors having a seal extending therearound and Secured thereto at spaced apart points by screws or other securing means necessitate punching of a plu rality of holes along the seal through. which the screws may pass. Due to variations in the distance between the holes punched in the seal and also variations in the distance between holes in the door walls or pans, the seal buckles intermediate certain screw holes and is stretched intermediate certain other screw holes. This prevents the seal from lying uniformly fiat around all sides of the door and necessitates tightly latching the door to the cabinet, in order to properly seal entirely around' the door opening and thereby places undue pressure on the seal which shortens its life. In ad'- dition to this difliculty, it has been found that the cost of producing such seals. can be. -g eatly reducecl by eliminatng the operation of punching holes therein. i

One of the objects of my' invention' is to improve and simplify the Construction and assembling of a refrigerator cabinet door to thereby reduce manufacturing costs while at the same time increasing the structural strength of the` simplified door construction.

Another object of my invention is to provide an improved method of and Construction for locking a seal element to a refriglerator cabinet door.

A further object of my inVentio-n is* to secure walls of a refrigerator cabinet door together' at a point adjacent a sea-1 on` the door and to pro- Vide an arrangement for locking the seal upon.

the door solely by walls thereof; in a manner to cause the seal to lie'uni-formly fiat against the door entirely therearound tocausethe seal to engage the cablnet; with substantially the same scaling pressure throughout the distance around its door opening.

More specifically, my invention contemplates the locking of a seal against accidental removal from a refrigerator cabinet door, without passing screws or other securing means. thereth-rough 2 by a novel clampin o'r securing together of walls or elements of the'door and to arrange the seal, with respect tothe clamping or securing means, so that a portion thereof conceals the door; wall clamping or securing together means from View. Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, reference being had to the` accompanying drawing, wherein a preferred form of the presentinventicn is clearly shown.

In the drawing: Fig. I is a front View of' a refrigerator cabinet having my invention embodied therein and showing a portion of the cabinet door broken away;

Fig. 2' is a fragmentary enlarged cross-sectional View taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1; and

Fg. 3 is a fragmentary enlarged View of an inner-edge portion of the refrigerato' cabinet door taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

Referring to. the drawing, for illustrating the inventic n, I have shown in Fig. 1 thereof a re- `frigerator cabinet of' the household type generally designated by the reference character n. Cabinet 110 includes a metal exterior shell or panel H' and an interier metal liner !2 forming walls of a food' storage compartment or chamber |3 within the cabinet. Any suitable or 'd-esirable insul'ating material !tis disposed between the liner l'2: and walls Il of the cabnet (see Fig. 2). An evaporator or cooling element |5 of a conventional 'refrigeratin system is mounted in the upper part of compartment [3 for cooling and causing circnlation of air therein. A frameless door, generally represented' by the reference character l`6, normally cl'oses an opening inthe frontwall of cabinet I ll' and providesaccess to the interier of 'food storage compartment [3. A door !1 may close or cover another opening in the front wall of cabinet ill leading to a compartment which houses the refrigeratng mechanism, operatively connected' with evaporator !5. The food compartment door !8 is provided. with a sealelement adapted to engage the front wall of cabinet [a about the access opening of food ccmpartment t3, and my invention is particularly directed to this element and the method of securing or looking same upon the door structure LG'.

In thepresent disclcsnre, door te ccmprises a 'sheet metal wall form'ng member ZI, shaped to provide the front face or wall and' sides of l the door, a non-metallic pan or wall forming member 22 shaped to. provide the niher-wall of the door and suitable insulating material 23` disposed in the chamber therebetween (see Fg 2) A flange 24 is turned inwardly on the sheet metal member 2l from the sides thereof in spaced relation to the front face of door [6. This fiange 24 is depressed or dented inwardly in a direction toward the front of door IS, as at 25 and 26, to provide walls of a groove or channel 21 extending around the inner-face of door 16 adjacent the sides thereof. The channel 21 in addition to increasing the structural strength of door [6, after assembly of elements therecf together, also prevents twisting of the door mem ber 2| during the process of baking a vitreous enamel coating thereon. Furthermore, the channel 21 in door member 2! provides a countersunk mounting space for receiving portion of a seal to be attached to the door IE. The inner pan member 22 of door IB may be formed of any suitable insulating material such as the glasslike polystyrene moulded from a powder obtain- -able on the market under the name "Styroni' 24 on door member 2! to form the closed chamber in which the door insulation 23 is disposed. A plurality of securing means such as screws 3l, preferably of the self-tapping variety, pass through holes provided in the fiange 28 of pan member 22 and thread themselves into holes pro vided in door member 2! to secure the door wall forming members 2| and 22 in assembled relation to one another. The screws 3| are arranged in spaced apart relation, as shown in Fig. 3 of the drawing, around all sides of the door I 6.

An extruded rubber or the like seal or seal element Secured to the peripheral inner portion of door |6 includes a hollow resilient bead or cushion portion 35 adapted to sealing by engaging the metal cabinet wall ll at the front of 5' V the cabinet around the food compartment access opening closed by door IS. The seal element also includes a compressible portion 35 formed integral with the cushion portion 35 thereof and disposed within the confines of the channel 21 around the door. Portion 36 of the seal element is formed into a hook-like shape in cross section for a purpose to be presently described. The seal element furthermore, includes a flexible lip portion 31, extending laterally from the scaling bead or cushion portion 35 thereof, and lying over the flange 28 and consequently the heads of screws 3! to conceal them from View.

In assembling the door structure of the present disclosure, the seal element is placed in position around the door member 2I with the hooklike portion 35 thereof disposed in the channel 21. The flexible lip 31 Of the seal element is bent back over the cushion portion 35 thereof and the door pan 22 is placed in cooperation with the door member 2l with the flanges 24 and 28 registering with one another and with the insulating material 23 disposed in the chamber between* the door wall forming members. The screws 3! re placed in position to firmly secure the anges 24 and 28 and consequently the door members 2! and 22 respectively together. Lip 31 on the seal element is then released and its resiliency causes it to move against the flange 28 on pan member 22 to thereby cover and conceal the heads of screws 3I. It is to be understood that during the assembly of pan member 22 upon member 2l, the edges 29 of pan member 22 are slipped or moved into the groove or opening of the book-like portion 36 of the seal element. This looks the seal element upon the door and the edge portion 29 of pan member 22 is tightly ccmpressed, by the screws 3l, against the hook portion 36 of the seal element to thereby prevent removal thereof from the channel 21.

It will be seen that I have provided a simplified refrigerator cabinet door Construction and have provided a novel structure for and method of clamping a seal element thereto without the necessity of passing screws or other securing means through the element. By virtue of the improved Construction, the securing means "for the scaling element and for the door pan members are concealed to thereby render the door neat in appearance. My improved Construction eliminates buckling and/or stretching of the seal element at certain points around the door and permits the seal to lie uniformly flat against the inner-face of the door so that all portions of the seal will engage the front of the cabinet with substantially the same sealing pressure entirely around the door opening. Also by virtue of the depression in the flange on the metal door pan or member, the structural strength of the simplified Construction is materially increased to thereby render it unnecessary to provide other or additional metal re-enforcing or frame forming elements within the door structure.

While the form of embodiment of the invention as herein disclosed constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted, as may come within the scope of the' claims which follow. i r

What is claimed is as follows:

1. A door for a refrigerator cabinet comprising, an inner wall forming member and an outer wall forming member providing a chamber therebetween, insulating material within said chamber, said outer member having a fiange portion thereon extending inwardly from sides of the door in spaced relation to the front thereof, said inner member having a fiange portion thereon overlapping and abutting the flange portion on said outer member, means for securing the overlapping and abutting fiange portions in direct contact with one another, a seal element for said door including a resilient sealing portion adapted to engage the cabinet and an integral mounting portion abutting said fiange portion on said outer member, said seal element having a hook-like part formed in the mounting portion thereof, said fiange portion on said inner wall forming member having an offset peripheral part substantially conforming to and fitting over said hook-like part of said seal element, and said securing means engaging said members to clamp said seal element mounting portion therebetween whereby said seal element is locked to the door.

`: 2. A door for a refrigerator cabinet comprising,

" an inner wall forming member and an outer wall relation to the front thereof, said fiange having a portion intermediate the edge thereof and a side of the door depressed in a direction toward the front of the door to provide a channel around said door, said inner member having a,

flange thereon overlapping and abutting that portion of the fiange on said outer member inwardly .scaling portion adapted to engage the cabinet 5 and an integral inounting portion disposed in the channel around said door, said seal element having an inwardly directed hook-like part formecl in the mounting portion thereof, said flange on said'inner wall forming member having a periph- 10 eral part offset toward the base of said channel substantially conforming to and fitting over said hook-like part of said seal element, and said securing means engaging the fiange portion of said members inwardly of saiddepressed channel to clamp said seal element mounting portion in the channel whereby said seal element is locked to the door.

C'ARL F. PETKWITZ. 

